Bart Bok

Infobox Scientist
name = Bart Bok
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caption = Bart Bok
birth_date = April 28 1906
birth_place = Hoorn
death_date = August 5 1983
death_place = Tucson
residence =
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nationality = Dutch-American
ethnicity =
field = astronomy
work_institutions = Harvard University
alma_mater = Leiden Groningen
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doctoral_students =
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Bart Jan Bok (Hoorn, April 28 1906 – Tucson, August 5 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer.

He was born in the Netherlands, and educated at the Leiden and Groningen Universities. In 1929 he married fellow astronomer Dr. Priscilla Fairfield Bok, and for the remainder of their lives the two collaborated closely on their astronomical work.

From 1929 until 1957 he worked at Harvard University. He then worked as director of Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia for nine years, before returning to the United States as director of Steward Observatory. He became a US citizen in 1938.

In 1975 Bok coauthored the statement "Objections to Astrology (The Humanist, 1975)" [http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/astrology.html] , which was endorsed by 186 professional astronomers, astrophysicists, and other scientists, including nineteen winners of the Nobel Prize. The statement was published in The Humanist. This led to the formation of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, of which he was a founding Fellow.

Bart Bok was an exceedingly popular personality in the field of astronomy, noted for his affability and humor. The Asteroid 1983 Bok was named for him while he was still living. In the ceremony announcing the award, he thanked the IAU for giving him "a little plot of land that [I] can retire to and live on." He participated in or led several groups to view solar eclipses, the last near Irkutsk in Siberia in the summer of 1980. On this trip to the USSR he led the group on a side trip to Byurakan Observatory, meeting with the director, Victor Ambartsumian.

Bok died of a heart attack at his home in Tucson, Arizona.

Honors

Awards
*Bruce Medal (1977)
*Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1982)
*Klumpke-Roberts Award (1982)Named after him
*Bok crater on the Moon (with his wife)
*Asteroid 1983 Bok (with his wife)
*Bok globules
*Bok Telescope
*Bart J Bok Postdoctoral Fellowship, given out by the Astronomy Department of the University of Arizona and Steward Observatory.

Bibliography

* Bart Jan Bok and Priscilla Fairfield Bok, "The Milky Way", 5th ed., Harvard University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-674-57503-2.
* David H. Levy, "The Man Who Sold the Milky Way: A Biography of Bart Bok", University of Arizona Press, 1993, ISBN 0816511495 (hardcover); 1995, ISBN 0816515247 (paperback).
*Citation
id = PMID:17712971
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17712971
last=Bok
first=B J
publication-date=
year=1973
title=Galactic spiral structure.
volume=61
issue=1
periodical=Am. Sci.
pages=8
*Citation
id = PMID:17778795
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17778795
last=Bok
first=
publication-date=1966 Nov 4
year=1966
title=Graduate Training in Astronomy.
volume=154
issue=3749
periodical=Science
pages=590-592
doi = 10.1126/science.154.3749.590-a
*Citation
id = PMID:17798483
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17798483
last=Bok
first=
publication-date=1955 Jun 17
year=1955
title=Science in International Cooperation.
volume=121
issue=3155
periodical=
pages=843-847
doi = 10.1126/science.121.3155.843
*Citation
id = PMID:17836270
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17836270
last=Bok
first=
publication-date=1953 Jan 23
year=1953
title=The United Nations Expanded Program for Technical Assistance.
volume=117
issue=3030
periodical=
pages=67-70
doi = 10.1126/science.117.3030.67
*Citation
id = PMID:17840405
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17840405
last=Bok
first=
publication-date=1944 Sep 8
year=1944
title=FREEDOM IN SCIENCE.
volume=100
issue=2593
periodical=
pages=217-218
doi = 10.1126/science.100.2593.217-a
*Citation
id = PMID:17759166
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17759166
last=Bok
first=
publication-date=1949 Feb 11
year=1949
title=Science and the Maintenance of Peace.
volume=109
issue=2824
periodical=Science
pages=131-137
doi = 10.1126/science.109.2824.131
*Citation
id = PMID:17809700
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17809700
last=Bok
first=
last2=Morgan
first2=
last3=Stokley
first3=
publication-date=1941 Jun 13
year=1941
title=THE DISTRIBUTION OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL LITERATURE ABROAD.
volume=93
issue=2424
periodical=
pages=568-569
doi = 10.1126/science.93.2424.568
*Citation
id = PMID:16588185
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16588185
last=Bok
first=B J
last2=Lindsay
first2=E M
publication-date=1938 Jan
year=1938
title=Note on the Stellar Distribution in the Vicinity of a Southern Galactic Window.
volume=24
issue=1
periodical=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
pages=4-9

External links

* [http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Bok/index.html Bruce Medal page]
* [http://www.nap.edu/books/0309049784/html/72.html National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs V.64 (1994)]

Obituaries

* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/JRASC/0078//0000003.000.html JRASC 78 (1984) 3]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/JRASC/0078//0000008.000.html JRASC 78 (1984) 8]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASAu/0005//0000608.000.html PASAu 5 (1984) 608]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/QJRAS/0028//0000539.000.html QJRAS 28 (1987) 539]